Trick or Treat

When you live on a mountaintop Halloween doesn’t come to you. You must go to Halloween. Prior to our moving to Fauquier County we lived in a suburban neighborhood where you could pound pavement in search of trick or treat treasures. Now we must travel in order to provide a Halloween experience for our grandson, Damian. For 15 years we have looted the same Marshall, VA housing development. This year we needed a change. We decided to find the scariest most frighteningly horrible place in the entire U. S. of A. We think we found it.

Our destination

Not everyone can score an invite to trick or treat The White House. It helps if you correspond regularly with our First Lady.

Yeah, we tight like that.

Actually, children of the armed forces and certain local school districts score the tickets each year. Our beloved principal, Joy Seward, was able to provide some of the Coleman Elementary School families with a true Halloween treat. The plan was for everyone to find their way downtown and then meet up in front of The White House. Being subway savvy ex-New Yorkers, we opted to take the Metro. Although the last time Don was on the subway he used a 50 cent token. He was unprepared to negotiate the fare machines at the Vienna Metro Station. After contemplating them, he decided to instruct Damian in the fine art of turnstile jumping while I and our friends The Bowen’s chose to pay our fares.

Damian & Eli riding the rails.

Don & Damian after their appeal hearing for turnstile jumping.

We had a 4:30 p.m. entry time and had to meet up with our group prior to lining up. How would we find them in this throng? Not to worry. Our fearless leader was standing on the street ready to round us up.

Mrs. Seward as spotter.

Despite the huge number of folks (and the fact that it was being run by the government) it was amazingly well organized. Everyone had their own lines based on the scheduled entry time. You were sent through as a group and your first stop was the security check point where you sent your bag through an airport-type scanner and you went through the metal detector. The aides that were organizing the entry point were all in costumes ranging from Harry Potter to dirty hippies. There was a huge police presence everywhere you went.

Adorable pink cowgirl

Nothing screams, “children’s event here” like automatic weapons.

However, despite the crowds, lines and threat of imminent attack it was all forgotten when you walked onto the grounds.

human spiders on a suspended web

I always suspected it was a three ring circus up there.

Everywhere you turned there was someone giving out candy or a special treat.

There were red, white and blue M&M’s in a box with the presidential seal, Hershey’s kisses with blue and silver stripes, hand painted cookies in the shape of the White House, cones of kettle corn and of course an individually wrapped apple (just to name a few of the goodies).

The entertainment was pretty amazing too!

Let them eat cake

The decorations were outstanding.

It certainly didn’t seem to matter if you were standing on the left side of the lawn or the right because everyone agreed that a good time was had by all.
(No, we did not get to see our host and hostess. I heard they were present earlier. Maybe it was during Fairfax County’s scheduled time.)

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